To ask the Minister of Education to detail (i) any work (a) being undertaken; or (b) planned to be undertaken, this year under the heading Establish and deliver pilot early childhood intervention programmes in the SEN Reform Agenda and Delivery Plan 2025-2030; and (ii) what will be delivered by this project.

The range of actions detailed under ‘Establish and deliver pilot early childhood intervention programmes’ in the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Reform Agenda and Delivery Plan 2025-2030 are at different stages of operationalisation.

A number of these actions will be funded by the Public Sector Transformation Board (PSTB) funding of £27.5m over the next 4 years. Delivery of the following will commence in 2025/26: Engagement programme for parents of children with SEN age 0-4; a targeted programme for 2-3 year olds with emerging needs that will include support for parents and families; an Early Intervention and Assessment Centre approach for children aged 3-6 years; trial of in-school support to children in pre-school and foundation stage; bespoke training and development for SEN classroom assistants; and an Inclusive Play Programme.

One of the actions ‘Address inequalities between statutory and non-statutory pre-school providers’ access to EPS and SEN support services’ requires significant additional investment; a bid for funding has been made.

The final action under this theme ‘Resource pre-school education settings to support children undergoing statutory assessment’ was implemented in November 2024 with the establishment of the Pre-school Education Inclusion Support Fund (PSEISF). This has delivered over £1m of funding support to pre-school education settings to date and will continue in 2025/26.